In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul warns the Corinthian believers to flee from idolatry by recounting the idolatrous history of the Israelites following the Exodus.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twoJourneys.org. Now, on to today’s episode.
This episode is entitled Severe Warnings from Israel’s History where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, these are some of the scariest warnings that Paul ever wrote. As a matter of fact, I think this section here, which is serious warnings from Israel’s history- how most of the Jews who went through the Red Sea and were involved in the Exodus died in the desert- never made it into the Promised Land. And that’s a serious warning to us to basically imitate Paul and what he was saying at the end of chapter nine of disciplining his body and keeping it under subjection, lest after preaching to others, he himself would be disqualified from the prize. He says, if you just take the chapter division, “For I do not want you to be ignorant of Israel’s history, I don’t want you to get disqualified.”
So, I think he’s getting to the issue of personal holiness as it’s tied, honestly, to pagan idolatry. We keep forgetting, there’s a lot of sexual immorality wrapped up in the pagan idolatrous worship system that they had recently come out of. And what he’s saying is don’t underestimate the pull of that, you need to watch yourselves very closely, you need to keep your fleshly drives and desires. I’m talking to you so-called mature people who think you’re beyond all of that, you are in danger still, so you better be like I am, watch your body very closely. So, it’s serious warnings from Israel’s history and we should all take these warnings seriously too because we’re still in danger ourselves.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read the first 13 verses here of 1 Corinthians 10:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now, these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Andy, how does this section connect with the previous one that we discussed last time?
Andy
All right. So, I mentioned it in my intro and I’m going to say remember that Paul talks about beating his body and making it his slave, he’s keeping it under strict subjection so that he won’t be disqualified because he didn’t watch over his internal drives and desires. And so, that was under a whole section which he’s saying, “Look, I don’t just do whatever I want, I don’t just follow my inclinations where they lead. I will try to do whatever I can to win people to faith in Christ.” But then he morphed toward the end of chapter nine to say, “In general, I watch over my internal desires because I have lusts inside me and desires for evil things that, if I don’t keep them in check, they will destroy me. And so, I have learned to be like an athlete, I’ve learned to be very strict with myself in terms of my eating and my drinking and my lifestyle so that I myself may not be disqualified from the gospel ministry.”
And then he goes right into chapter 10 saying, “For I don’t want you to be ignorant about what happened to the Jews” (1 Corinthians 10:1, paraphrase). And so, he’s giving them, this is clearly a warning, he’s warning the Corinthians to do the same thing to themselves that he does to himself, namely, to go into strict training concerning their bodies, lest they be disqualified, frankly, from heaven itself. And the backdrop is the immorality and the appeal, the fleshly appeal of pagan worship, of idolatrous worship. There was sexual immorality with temple prostitutes, there was the meat so there was gluttony and drunkenness and all of that and said, “Look, it’s been done before. The Jews did it when Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of the 10 Commandments. This is an old thing, it’s still an issue and you folks, you need to be very, very careful about your internal lusts.” So, that’s the connection between chapters nine and 10.
Wes
Now, Paul begins by recounting the history of Israel in the Exodus, but he uses Christian symbolic language to do it. What are the symbols that he connects with here?
Andy
Yeah, he takes the story, the Exodus story and basically puts Christian language. They were baptized in the sea, the Red Sea, and they drank from the Rock and the Rock is Christ, and they ate the spiritual food which was manna likened to the Lord’s Supper. So, he is saying, “Look, and the basic lesson is this, it’s not those who start but those who finish.” They didn’t finish, they didn’t cross the finish line, they didn’t cross the Jordan River, they didn’t enter the Promised Land, they died in the desert. And so, the image then for you in the Christian language is it’s not enough to just be water baptized and to take part in the Lord’s Supper and to hear the preaching and all that, you need to run the race to the end, you need to cross the finish line. Most of those folks never made it and why? Frankly, because of pagan idolatry that they’d learned in Egypt.
“It’s not enough to just be water baptized and to take part in the Lord’s Supper and to hear the preaching and all that, you need to run the race to the end, you need to cross the finish line”
Wes
Now, what should we make of Paul calling Christ the spiritual rock as he’s recounting this story of the water from the rock?
Andy
Yeah, it’s really an amazing section, they’re baptized into Moses in the cloud, in the sea, baptized. He’s just very interesting using that Christian language and the Lord’s Supper type language and all that. But the rock was Christ, I think, again, that’s something that we wouldn’t have seen it, we wouldn’t have thought, “Hey, that’s Christ.” But it seems like all roads in the Bible ultimately lead to Christ, He is the fulfillment of prophecy in almost every respect. And so, Jesus is, he says it in John 7:37b, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.” Well, there’s the rock. If you were in thirsty in the desert back then, they came to the rock and out of that rock came water, and so Jesus is the source of life.
So, that’s why the idea that the rock, it literally gave them life in the desert because you die within days if you don’t have enough water, and Jesus is the life-giving water that flows.
Wes
How does Paul mean verse five to be a shocking wake-up call for the Corinthians?
Andy
Yeah, read your translation. I actually like mine a little better, it’s a little more shocking in mind but go ahead.
Wes
So, here it says, “Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Andy
All right. Mine says, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, their bodies were scattered over the desert,” so you’re just seeing corpses everywhere. You look at it, you remember what happened with the 12 spies and the 10-letter revolts or rebellion saying we can’t do it. And they said they talked of stoning Moses and going back to Egypt and all that. And God was very angry and shows up in the pillar of fire and says, “Look, fine, you’re not going to go in, I’m not going to let any of you go in. None of this generation is going to enter in but your children will. Now, you, turn around and you’re going to wander in the desert.”
And what happened is, over the next 40 years, all the men, the focus is on the men, the warriors, all the men of warrior age, 20 to 60 I guess, died except Joshua and Caleb, all of them. So, how does that fit into the actuarial charts? Does an entire generation of young men, of men 20 to 60 die in 40 years? So, that means there are no 60-year-olds, none after 40 years, they’re all dead. There are no 65-year-olds, none except Joshua and Caleb however old they were. But that’s terrifying. He says, “Look, God killed them, and why? As a warning to you, these things are written down as a warning to you.” And so, as examples of verse 11, examples and warnings to us. So, we’re supposed to be warned like, “Look what happened to the Jews, you can’t just do that.”
And so, he’s going to go through it, and we’ll go through the details but, basically, fundamentally, the fact that most of those Jews died out in the desert shows you’re not there yet. You need to run this race with endurance, you need to be holy because the Lord is holy, you need to be careful about idolatry, all of that. That’s the warning that he’s giving them.
Wes
And that phrase, even as I was reading, struck me as it was repeated these things were examples for us. So, Paul is zeroing in saying, “We need to learn the lesson that they did not, we need to learn the lesson that God intends for us from these happenings.”
Andy
Right. And by the way, that verse six is a key interpretive principle for the Old Testament. We’re always looking to see are we seeing types, are we seeing symbols, are we seeing examples that we can learn from? And so, when I read Ezekiel, and I look at some of the things from there, I say, “What does this teach me about my walk with Christ?” I think we’re supposed to do that.
Wes
Well, let’s talk about verse six. How did Israel set their hearts on evil things in the Exodus?
Andy
Okay. So, fundamentally, anything you set your heart on that’s evil is an idol, the essence is idolatry. And I didn’t realize this, Wes, and I just want to commend this to our readers and that’s Ezekiel 20 which gives a rather shocking backstory that’s not recorded in the Pentateuch. It’s not recorded in the books of Genesis or Exodus and that’s how idolatrous the Jews had become in the 400 years that they were in Egypt. And I’m not going to go through it but it’s there. Basically, they were idolaters before the Exodus, before the Exodus in the pattern of Egyptian idolatry, and God wanted to kill them. But instead, he spared them, brought them out, brought them to Mount Sinai and told them not to do that anymore, and yet they did.
And so, the idea is they set their hearts on evil things, meaning, ultimately, idols. But then the life, the lascivious life that came from it which usually involved sexual immorality and eating, the sensual pleasures, they set their hearts on those things in the name of false gods.
Wes
What examples of idolatry does Paul also cite in verse seven and how did that occasion serve as a warning to the Corinthians in their particular setting?
Andy
Sure. Well, I think he’s pretty clearly talking about the golden calf incident where Moses is up on Mount Sinai, and Aaron’s still down with the people. And the people said, “Make us gods to go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what happened to him, we’ve not seen him in a while.” And so, Aaron did, and it just shows how idolatrous they all were. And so, what ends up happening is God told Moses what was going on, he says, “You better go down there and get to your people because they’re out of control. Aaron has let them get out of control.”
So, they’re going down, it’s a wild orgy. It’s just they sat down to eat and drink and got up to play. It’s like, “All right, what’s that mean?” You don’t want to know. And it was just, oh, my goodness, and these are the Jewish people there. This is post 10 Commandments. They have heard the voice of Almighty God speaking from the cloud that settled down on the fire, that settled down on the top of Mount Sinai. They heard, they knew the law, but they didn’t do it, they didn’t keep it.
And so, fundamentally, that is a story of idolatry and the reason that Paul’s telling the Corinthians that is that they did their own version of that before the gospel came to Corinth. Corinth was known for sexual immorality; it was known throughout Greece. It was a port city where the sailors came, and they came and did what they do, and it was just a bad, bad place. So, he’s saying, “Look, it’s not new. The Jews did the same thing but look what happened to them, they ended up getting killed by God so don’t do that.”
Wes
What warning does Paul give in verse eight and how should this cause us to guard our hearts and ways from sexual sin in our present context?
Andy
Well, it’s a great weakness. From the moment that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, and God had to clothe them. They could cover themselves with fig leaves and then God had to cover them with animal skin. And the fact is we can’t handle it where our minds are not capable of dealing with sexual matters purely. It’s a great weakness for us. And so, fundamentally, the only thing that we can do is what Paul does in chapter nine, he beats his body and makes it his slave, lest he beat disqualified. So, you have to just be very strict, you’ve got to do what Joseph did with Potiphar’s wife, run for your life, get away, get out of it, don’t get lured in. And so, he’s clearly warning them about sexual immorality; 23,000 drop dead.
The wage of sin is death, and you look at Revelation, and he talks about Jezebel, prophetess who leads his people into sexual immorality, I have given them time to repent but they’re not willing. Now I’m going to cast them on a bed of suffering, and it’s so he can kill you. And so, the idea here is sexual purity, and we’re vulnerable, and we need to watch out, we should not commit sexual immorality. And we’re a very sexualized culture. You look at just how free people are sexually. And how marriage rates are going down because people are just fornicating, they’re just getting together as they see fit. But it’s very sad, just dilutes people, so we need to be vigilant on sexual purity.
Wes
How did Israel test the Lord before they were killed by the snakes that are mentioned in verses nine and 10, and what does that story teach us about how God feels about grumbling and complaining against him?
Andy
It’s an interesting phraseology here. The testing of the Lord in Massa and Meribah is, “Is the Lord among us or not, or did you bring us out here in the desert to cause us to die of starvation and not having enough water? Is God here or not?” The snakes are a different matter, they’re complaining about the manna. They’re not wondering is God here or not, they’re wondering if God can expand the menu a bit. They’re a little tired of manna, can we have something else to eat? And they were grumbling and so verse 10 talks about grumbling. And so, fundamentally, when I wrote a book on Christian contentment and had a whole chapter on the sin of complaining. Complaining is a very great sin especially when we consider that we were meant, we were created to praise. And what is complaining but anti-praise? It’s I’m saying the opposite of “thank you, God, for all the blessings of my life,” I’m like, “Why did you do this, O God,” kind of thing.
So, we ought to really be aware of complaining and say, “Look, I deserve to be bitten by a poisonous desert snake, I have been bitterly complaining all day.” You could imagine and, Wes, this stuff is so foolish, so stupid. We had an event, a family gathering, a picnic planned for a state park. Beautiful location right on the lake, we reserved it seven months in advance, paid $500 down and it pours rain the whole day. And what do we do? We complain, we say hard things against God. Why? Because it’s raining on our picnic. Or you can imagine car trouble. When was the last time that you or I had car trouble and didn’t complain about it? I would like just once to say, “Lord, I trust you. Thank you for the car trouble. I know that you’re causing me to not be so in love with my money, so you’re taking some of it from me,” something like that. But again, God was angry and sent poisonous snakes to kill them, and they were killed by a destroying angel. So, we need to be against that kind of wickedness and evil, the complaining, the bitterness, the sin, the sexual immorality, the idolatry, all of that.
“It seems like all roads in the Bible ultimately lead to Christ, He is the fulfillment of prophecy in almost every respect.”
Wes
Andy, at the end of verse 10, my translation says the destroyer, did I just hear you say yours says the destroying angel? How should we understand the end of verse 10?
Andy
I don’t actually even know what verse 10 is talking about. I think … Yeah, I just think, when there’s a plague, sometimes … Either way, we have a sense of an intelligent destroyer, and who would that be other than God or an angel. And so, I think, fundamentally, any story in which there are dead Jews during the Exodus, they’re dropping dead, especially after the … Well, I think exclusively after the 10 spies complained, that’s vengeance from God, so we need to take warning. This whole thing is a warning passage. Don’t be like the Jews who died in the desert, that’s what he’s saying.
Wes
What does verse 11 teach us about how we should read the Old Testament narratives about Israel’s history, especially their sins, and what does it mean that we are those on whom the end of the ages has come?
Andy
All right. First of all, these things happened to them as examples. So, God actually orchestrated these things knowing full well what they were going to do. And he wanted negative examples. We have in the Bible both negative and positive examples. Don’t be like X, do be like Y. And so we have these negative examples. And so, it was orchestrated providentially and then written down by Moses and other Bible writers so that we can have the warning we need. Now, warnings are essential to our faith, we need to believe in that. The whole epistle of Hebrews is an epistle of warnings and why? Because we need warnings to stay on the straight and narrow, we need warnings to not apostatize.
So, as I read these scary accounts, I am caused to look inward to find the exact same tendencies in my heart and cry out against myself and say, “What a wretched man I am, please protect me, God; there’s no difference between me and those unbelieving Jews. I’m every bit as whining and complaining and idolatrous and wicked.” So, you remember the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. I think hermeneutics is important coming from the bad example of the Pharisee. “I thank you, God, that I’m not like other men…. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I give” (Luke 18:11a, 12). And I thank you that I’m so great, I’m just an incredible person and I’m not like this tax collector over here, I’m nothing like that.
All right. Imagine that as a hermeneutical approach to the Old Testament or indeed to the whole Bible. I thank you, God, that I’m not like the Jews who died in the desert, it seems like we ought not to be that way. I thank you, God, that I’m not like the pagan Egyptians who died in the Red Sea, or I thank you, God, that I’m not like … Don’t. Just say I know I’m like the sinners in this story, tell me how, show me how. And it’s not always true, we don’t struggle with every sin, there’s some sins that people struggle with that I don’t. But at the same time, it’s better for me to be safe. When I’m reading through Ezekiel and I see how Jerusalem is portrayed as an unfaithful wife that’s whoring after the nations, whoring after the gods of other nations, I don’t read that like I thank you, God, that I’m not like that, I read that to say, “God, please help me not to be like that.”
So, I think the idea is we take these warnings, best if we take them seriously and take them personally and take them up to God in prayer. And like the tax collector in that parable, beat our breasts and say, “Be merciful to me, O God, the sinner” (Luke 18:13b).
Wes
What does it mean then that we are those on whom the end of the ages has come?
Andy
Well, that’s Christ and we’re in a better place now. The promises we have are better promises. The gospel that we have is clearer, it’s more accurately articulated than it ever was in the Old Testament. So, the fulfillment of all the ages is Jesus and the gospel, the New Testament. Now that we’re at this place in redemptive history, let’s learn what they learned from the past.
Wes
What key exhortation does Paul give following that in verse 12, to all Christians about sin and the proper way to receive warnings? And why is overconfidence in the matter of sin and temptation so deadly, maybe even specifically deadly in areas where we’ve fallen in the past?
Andy
Well, this is a vital verse in the Wednesday night teaching we’re doing in Romans on the issue of mortification. And one of the things I teach is that we put sin to death, we call it “death by starvation,” that’s our strategy. So, you take a sin category and the way that you weaken its hold on you and its powerful temptations toward you is by denying specific moments of temptation in that category. And the more you deny those, the more you say no to illicit websites, pornographic websites or the more you say no to materialism or the more you say no to carnal anger, let’s say, in a discussion with your spouse. Or the more you say no to laziness and the tendency to put off paying your bills and then you start getting into collection agencies because you procrastinated so long. The more you learn to say no to yourself, the weaker sin will get in that category. But one thing you cannot do is kill a category.
You can’t put a red X across a whole category saying, “I know that for the rest of my life I’ll never struggle with that particular type of pride.” You can never say that, and this verse says why. If you think you’re standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall. In the area where you think you are strongest, you’re actually weakest. Paul said, “When I’m weak, then I’m strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). The corollary is, when I’m strong, then I’m actually weak. Strong means overconfident, and pride goes before the fall. So, if you think you are standing firm, you better take heed. So, basically I would just say take heed.
Like someone once said, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom (attributed to Thomas Jefferson). You want to be free from sin, you got to be vigilant. You got to put some night watchman out on the wall and expect some temptations in certain areas and the stronger and the … It’s like someone once said, if any nation ever wants peace, they need to prepare for war (Admiral Rob Bauer). You get everything ready for war, guess what? You’re going to have peace. I guess it’s Teddy Roosevelt who said speak softly and carry a big stick. All right, when it comes to temptations and all that, I’m going to carry a big stick which is preparedness, readiness, I’m going to memorize scripture, I’m going to put myself out on the wall like a night watchman. I’m going to watch out because I just don’t want to fall.
Wes, think of it this way, suppose I said to you, “I don’t really need to worry about committing adultery, I just know I would never be unfaithful to Christi.” What would you say to me if you heard me say that and you really thought I believed it?
Wes
I’d say watch out. Be careful, that kind of attitude puts you in the very place. I think that’s what he says, right? It is take heed.
Andy
Maybe you’d slap me.
Wes
I don’t know if I’d slap you.
Andy
That’s not your nature. But I can imagine some guys, I have only one response, smack. But I think the Bible does that, it’ll smack us around. Do you think Peter was overconfident when he said even if fall away, I never will? There are clear examples of this. I think David was overconfident the night he walked out on the roof and saw Bathsheba bathing. And so, yeah, if you think you’re standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall.
Wes
How’s it helpful for us to know that the temptations we face are common to all Christians and what does it mean that God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability?
Andy
This is an incredibly important statement, very, very important. First of all, there’s a finite number of temptations Satan uses. John brings it down to three, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and boastful pride of life, there’s more than that. But it’s not an infinite array of temptations, there’s just a bunch of things that just keep working. Satan, he just keeps coming at you with those things. And so, the temptations that seize you are common to all people, and so we could start listing them. Obviously, we’ve talked a lot about sex but prideful things, materialism and greed, power, control, anger, things like that, laziness. These things are common, we all struggle with them.
And I think one of the ways that we find that this is helpful is just say, “Look, we’re in a local church together, I know what you struggle with.” “No, you don’t.” “Yes, I do, because I struggle with it too. We all struggle with the same things.” And so, Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 5:5, the temptations we deal with are common to all of our brothers, our brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings. So, that’s part A. Now, part B is really important. God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13 paraphrase). Now, this feeds right into the topic of the restraint of Satan and of demons that we discussed in the Book of Job with the hedge of protection that God had put around Job. You’ve not let me get at him, let me at him, and I’ll take care of it.
So, the fact that he has to ask permission or, “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31), he didn’t just do it, he had to ask permission. “I can’t get at Job,” Satan’s saying, and this is the “I can’t get at any Christian” statement. God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. All right let’s go to that. The fact of the matter is there are temptations that are too strong for us to bear, and God won’t let it come our way, all right? So, a very good example of this, this is a very deep theological point. Jesus said in John 17, “I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4), and “of all that You have given me, I have not lost any of them” (John 18:9 paraphrase). I’ve not lost any of them.
But then in the next chapter, when Jesus is being arrested, he said, “Who are you looking for?” (John 18:4), and they said, “Jesus of Nazareth,” and Jesus said, “I am,” and they drew back and fell to the ground. “Again, Jesus a second time asked them, ‘Who are you looking for?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth'” (John 18:7). All right, stop right there. Why did he do that? Why did He make them state twice what their orders were written for? We’re here to arrest Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said, “Fine, if you’re looking for me, then let these men go.” Who is he talking about? His apostles. And then John gives us the reason why, “Jesus said this so that the statement He had made would be fulfilled, of all those You have given me, I have not lost one” (John18:9).
So, that’s interesting. If they had been arrested, they would’ve been lost. It’s the implication. They weren’t ready to be arrested that night. Clearly Peter wasn’t, though he thought he was. And so, Jesus orchestrated the temptation, he let them have a way of escape. They actually even acted out they have a way of escape. At that moment, his disciples all deserted him and fled. “Let them go,” they let them go. Did Jesus want them to go? He actually did because they weren’t ready to face. Now, later they would be martyrs but not that night, they weren’t ready.
And so, fundamentally, that’s a picture, an acted-out picture of this very verse. He will get out in front of us as our good shepherd, he’ll stand between us and the trial, the temptation, the danger. He said, “No, no, no, I’m not letting you pass. I’m here to protect my flock.” He’s not going to let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Isn’t that comforting?
Wes
It is. Wow.
Andy
He filters. It shows a limit of Satan, he’s on a chain. It shows that hedge of protection. It also shows, if the gate goes up and the demons flood in, God has let it happen. So, if you’re going through some things and this is where I’ve said before there are two statements we often make that are hardly ever true, if they are ever true. One is I can’t take much more of this, and the second is I did my best. We say those two things. Imagine somebody going through a trial say I can’t take any more of this. Well, you can take exactly what God brings your way because of this verse. So, what you need to do is go back to God, get strengthened, stand up under it.
And by the way, there’s a very strong image here that’s complex. He says, “God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but, with the temptation, will make a way of escape so that you can stand up under it.” So, all right, am I supposed to escape or stand up under it?
Wes
Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I have two E words in my translation. I think it’s, it’s am I to escape or endure.
Andy
Yeah.
Wes
Which is it?
Andy
Well, I think it’s both. In the verse it’s you endure by escaping. So, let’s look again at Joseph, Potiphar’s wife is tempting him. Let’s imagine that she’s a very attractive woman, that she’s not ugly, some old, ugly, repulsive person but it’s a temptation. He’s a picture of what you have to do, all right? When he went to bed that night, was his morality and his walk with God intact? Was he standing in his faith? He was. How did he do it? By running. So, the way that your faith stands firm, and your testimony stands firm is by escaping. Again, Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer, lead us not into temptation, get out of it.
By the way I was, this is related I think, I was watching a YouTube video by a Navy SEAL, a special ops expert, hand-to-hand combat expert guy. And he was fundamentally advocating escaping from every fighting situation if ever possible. And he said because here’s what’s going to happen. Let’s say it’s a bar situation, and you’re seven black belt level, you’re whatever. One of two things is going to happen. Either some guy’s going to pull a weapon on you, and you’ll be dead, or he’s got a bunch of friends and whatever and you’ll be in the hospital. Or you’ll kill the guy, in which case you’ll be in court. And you have to have witnesses, and it’s going to be a long-drawn-out affair defending your innocence. It will not be easy to prove. The best thing for you to do is run away.
So, here’s this best fighter in the world saying, don’t fight, run away. So, I guess what I’m saying is, here, the best thing we can do is not stand up strong in the moment of temptation and show how much we can handle, get out of it. Do what Joseph did, get out of the situation. Lead us not into temptation, Jesus said. Don’t be tempted. So, whatever ways you can orchestrate your life, cut off your right hand, gouge out your right eye, whatever you have to do to be pure, be pure.
“Don’t be tempted. So, whatever ways you can orchestrate your life, cut off your right hand, gouge out your right eye, whatever you have to do to be pure, be pure.”
Wes
Andy, there’s much for us to take away from this passage we’ve been looking at. What final thoughts do you have for us as we wrap up today?
Andy
This is a serious warning. And the warning is from Israel’s history that sin is prevalent, sin is dangerous. Idolatry is there, sexual immorality is there; we need to be vigilant; we need to watch. It’s not enough to begin the Christian life, it’s not enough just to go to church and start it, we need to finish. And the only way we’re going to finish is go back to the end of chapter nine and beat our bodies and make it our slave. And be self-controlled and disciplined and go into strict training. And let’s be very, very careful with ourselves so that we’re not disqualified. So, we need to take warnings, we need to take sin seriously, and we need to run this race with endurance.
Wes
Well, this has been episode 13 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 14 entitled Idolatry and Christian Freedom where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twoJourneys.org. Now, on to today’s episode.
This episode is entitled Severe Warnings from Israel’s History where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, these are some of the scariest warnings that Paul ever wrote. As a matter of fact, I think this section here, which is serious warnings from Israel’s history- how most of the Jews who went through the Red Sea and were involved in the Exodus died in the desert- never made it into the Promised Land. And that’s a serious warning to us to basically imitate Paul and what he was saying at the end of chapter nine of disciplining his body and keeping it under subjection, lest after preaching to others, he himself would be disqualified from the prize. He says, if you just take the chapter division, “For I do not want you to be ignorant of Israel’s history, I don’t want you to get disqualified.”
So, I think he’s getting to the issue of personal holiness as it’s tied, honestly, to pagan idolatry. We keep forgetting, there’s a lot of sexual immorality wrapped up in the pagan idolatrous worship system that they had recently come out of. And what he’s saying is don’t underestimate the pull of that, you need to watch yourselves very closely, you need to keep your fleshly drives and desires. I’m talking to you so-called mature people who think you’re beyond all of that, you are in danger still, so you better be like I am, watch your body very closely. So, it’s serious warnings from Israel’s history and we should all take these warnings seriously too because we’re still in danger ourselves.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read the first 13 verses here of 1 Corinthians 10:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now, these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Andy, how does this section connect with the previous one that we discussed last time?
Andy
All right. So, I mentioned it in my intro and I’m going to say remember that Paul talks about beating his body and making it his slave, he’s keeping it under strict subjection so that he won’t be disqualified because he didn’t watch over his internal drives and desires. And so, that was under a whole section which he’s saying, “Look, I don’t just do whatever I want, I don’t just follow my inclinations where they lead. I will try to do whatever I can to win people to faith in Christ.” But then he morphed toward the end of chapter nine to say, “In general, I watch over my internal desires because I have lusts inside me and desires for evil things that, if I don’t keep them in check, they will destroy me. And so, I have learned to be like an athlete, I’ve learned to be very strict with myself in terms of my eating and my drinking and my lifestyle so that I myself may not be disqualified from the gospel ministry.”
And then he goes right into chapter 10 saying, “For I don’t want you to be ignorant about what happened to the Jews” (1 Corinthians 10:1, paraphrase). And so, he’s giving them, this is clearly a warning, he’s warning the Corinthians to do the same thing to themselves that he does to himself, namely, to go into strict training concerning their bodies, lest they be disqualified, frankly, from heaven itself. And the backdrop is the immorality and the appeal, the fleshly appeal of pagan worship, of idolatrous worship. There was sexual immorality with temple prostitutes, there was the meat so there was gluttony and drunkenness and all of that and said, “Look, it’s been done before. The Jews did it when Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of the 10 Commandments. This is an old thing, it’s still an issue and you folks, you need to be very, very careful about your internal lusts.” So, that’s the connection between chapters nine and 10.
Wes
Now, Paul begins by recounting the history of Israel in the Exodus, but he uses Christian symbolic language to do it. What are the symbols that he connects with here?
Andy
Yeah, he takes the story, the Exodus story and basically puts Christian language. They were baptized in the sea, the Red Sea, and they drank from the Rock and the Rock is Christ, and they ate the spiritual food which was manna likened to the Lord’s Supper. So, he is saying, “Look, and the basic lesson is this, it’s not those who start but those who finish.” They didn’t finish, they didn’t cross the finish line, they didn’t cross the Jordan River, they didn’t enter the Promised Land, they died in the desert. And so, the image then for you in the Christian language is it’s not enough to just be water baptized and to take part in the Lord’s Supper and to hear the preaching and all that, you need to run the race to the end, you need to cross the finish line. Most of those folks never made it and why? Frankly, because of pagan idolatry that they’d learned in Egypt.
“It’s not enough to just be water baptized and to take part in the Lord’s Supper and to hear the preaching and all that, you need to run the race to the end, you need to cross the finish line”
Wes
Now, what should we make of Paul calling Christ the spiritual rock as he’s recounting this story of the water from the rock?
Andy
Yeah, it’s really an amazing section, they’re baptized into Moses in the cloud, in the sea, baptized. He’s just very interesting using that Christian language and the Lord’s Supper type language and all that. But the rock was Christ, I think, again, that’s something that we wouldn’t have seen it, we wouldn’t have thought, “Hey, that’s Christ.” But it seems like all roads in the Bible ultimately lead to Christ, He is the fulfillment of prophecy in almost every respect. And so, Jesus is, he says it in John 7:37b, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.” Well, there’s the rock. If you were in thirsty in the desert back then, they came to the rock and out of that rock came water, and so Jesus is the source of life.
So, that’s why the idea that the rock, it literally gave them life in the desert because you die within days if you don’t have enough water, and Jesus is the life-giving water that flows.
Wes
How does Paul mean verse five to be a shocking wake-up call for the Corinthians?
Andy
Yeah, read your translation. I actually like mine a little better, it’s a little more shocking in mind but go ahead.
Wes
So, here it says, “Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
Andy
All right. Mine says, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, their bodies were scattered over the desert,” so you’re just seeing corpses everywhere. You look at it, you remember what happened with the 12 spies and the 10-letter revolts or rebellion saying we can’t do it. And they said they talked of stoning Moses and going back to Egypt and all that. And God was very angry and shows up in the pillar of fire and says, “Look, fine, you’re not going to go in, I’m not going to let any of you go in. None of this generation is going to enter in but your children will. Now, you, turn around and you’re going to wander in the desert.”
And what happened is, over the next 40 years, all the men, the focus is on the men, the warriors, all the men of warrior age, 20 to 60 I guess, died except Joshua and Caleb, all of them. So, how does that fit into the actuarial charts? Does an entire generation of young men, of men 20 to 60 die in 40 years? So, that means there are no 60-year-olds, none after 40 years, they’re all dead. There are no 65-year-olds, none except Joshua and Caleb however old they were. But that’s terrifying. He says, “Look, God killed them, and why? As a warning to you, these things are written down as a warning to you.” And so, as examples of verse 11, examples and warnings to us. So, we’re supposed to be warned like, “Look what happened to the Jews, you can’t just do that.”
And so, he’s going to go through it, and we’ll go through the details but, basically, fundamentally, the fact that most of those Jews died out in the desert shows you’re not there yet. You need to run this race with endurance, you need to be holy because the Lord is holy, you need to be careful about idolatry, all of that. That’s the warning that he’s giving them.
Wes
And that phrase, even as I was reading, struck me as it was repeated these things were examples for us. So, Paul is zeroing in saying, “We need to learn the lesson that they did not, we need to learn the lesson that God intends for us from these happenings.”
Andy
Right. And by the way, that verse six is a key interpretive principle for the Old Testament. We’re always looking to see are we seeing types, are we seeing symbols, are we seeing examples that we can learn from? And so, when I read Ezekiel, and I look at some of the things from there, I say, “What does this teach me about my walk with Christ?” I think we’re supposed to do that.
Wes
Well, let’s talk about verse six. How did Israel set their hearts on evil things in the Exodus?
Andy
Okay. So, fundamentally, anything you set your heart on that’s evil is an idol, the essence is idolatry. And I didn’t realize this, Wes, and I just want to commend this to our readers and that’s Ezekiel 20 which gives a rather shocking backstory that’s not recorded in the Pentateuch. It’s not recorded in the books of Genesis or Exodus and that’s how idolatrous the Jews had become in the 400 years that they were in Egypt. And I’m not going to go through it but it’s there. Basically, they were idolaters before the Exodus, before the Exodus in the pattern of Egyptian idolatry, and God wanted to kill them. But instead, he spared them, brought them out, brought them to Mount Sinai and told them not to do that anymore, and yet they did.
And so, the idea is they set their hearts on evil things, meaning, ultimately, idols. But then the life, the lascivious life that came from it which usually involved sexual immorality and eating, the sensual pleasures, they set their hearts on those things in the name of false gods.
Wes
What examples of idolatry does Paul also cite in verse seven and how did that occasion serve as a warning to the Corinthians in their particular setting?
Andy
Sure. Well, I think he’s pretty clearly talking about the golden calf incident where Moses is up on Mount Sinai, and Aaron’s still down with the people. And the people said, “Make us gods to go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what happened to him, we’ve not seen him in a while.” And so, Aaron did, and it just shows how idolatrous they all were. And so, what ends up happening is God told Moses what was going on, he says, “You better go down there and get to your people because they’re out of control. Aaron has let them get out of control.”
So, they’re going down, it’s a wild orgy. It’s just they sat down to eat and drink and got up to play. It’s like, “All right, what’s that mean?” You don’t want to know. And it was just, oh, my goodness, and these are the Jewish people there. This is post 10 Commandments. They have heard the voice of Almighty God speaking from the cloud that settled down on the fire, that settled down on the top of Mount Sinai. They heard, they knew the law, but they didn’t do it, they didn’t keep it.
And so, fundamentally, that is a story of idolatry and the reason that Paul’s telling the Corinthians that is that they did their own version of that before the gospel came to Corinth. Corinth was known for sexual immorality; it was known throughout Greece. It was a port city where the sailors came, and they came and did what they do, and it was just a bad, bad place. So, he’s saying, “Look, it’s not new. The Jews did the same thing but look what happened to them, they ended up getting killed by God so don’t do that.”
Wes
What warning does Paul give in verse eight and how should this cause us to guard our hearts and ways from sexual sin in our present context?
Andy
Well, it’s a great weakness. From the moment that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, and God had to clothe them. They could cover themselves with fig leaves and then God had to cover them with animal skin. And the fact is we can’t handle it where our minds are not capable of dealing with sexual matters purely. It’s a great weakness for us. And so, fundamentally, the only thing that we can do is what Paul does in chapter nine, he beats his body and makes it his slave, lest he beat disqualified. So, you have to just be very strict, you’ve got to do what Joseph did with Potiphar’s wife, run for your life, get away, get out of it, don’t get lured in. And so, he’s clearly warning them about sexual immorality; 23,000 drop dead.
The wage of sin is death, and you look at Revelation, and he talks about Jezebel, prophetess who leads his people into sexual immorality, I have given them time to repent but they’re not willing. Now I’m going to cast them on a bed of suffering, and it’s so he can kill you. And so, the idea here is sexual purity, and we’re vulnerable, and we need to watch out, we should not commit sexual immorality. And we’re a very sexualized culture. You look at just how free people are sexually. And how marriage rates are going down because people are just fornicating, they’re just getting together as they see fit. But it’s very sad, just dilutes people, so we need to be vigilant on sexual purity.
Wes
How did Israel test the Lord before they were killed by the snakes that are mentioned in verses nine and 10, and what does that story teach us about how God feels about grumbling and complaining against him?
Andy
It’s an interesting phraseology here. The testing of the Lord in Massa and Meribah is, “Is the Lord among us or not, or did you bring us out here in the desert to cause us to die of starvation and not having enough water? Is God here or not?” The snakes are a different matter, they’re complaining about the manna. They’re not wondering is God here or not, they’re wondering if God can expand the menu a bit. They’re a little tired of manna, can we have something else to eat? And they were grumbling and so verse 10 talks about grumbling. And so, fundamentally, when I wrote a book on Christian contentment and had a whole chapter on the sin of complaining. Complaining is a very great sin especially when we consider that we were meant, we were created to praise. And what is complaining but anti-praise? It’s I’m saying the opposite of “thank you, God, for all the blessings of my life,” I’m like, “Why did you do this, O God,” kind of thing.
So, we ought to really be aware of complaining and say, “Look, I deserve to be bitten by a poisonous desert snake, I have been bitterly complaining all day.” You could imagine and, Wes, this stuff is so foolish, so stupid. We had an event, a family gathering, a picnic planned for a state park. Beautiful location right on the lake, we reserved it seven months in advance, paid $500 down and it pours rain the whole day. And what do we do? We complain, we say hard things against God. Why? Because it’s raining on our picnic. Or you can imagine car trouble. When was the last time that you or I had car trouble and didn’t complain about it? I would like just once to say, “Lord, I trust you. Thank you for the car trouble. I know that you’re causing me to not be so in love with my money, so you’re taking some of it from me,” something like that. But again, God was angry and sent poisonous snakes to kill them, and they were killed by a destroying angel. So, we need to be against that kind of wickedness and evil, the complaining, the bitterness, the sin, the sexual immorality, the idolatry, all of that.
“It seems like all roads in the Bible ultimately lead to Christ, He is the fulfillment of prophecy in almost every respect.”
Wes
Andy, at the end of verse 10, my translation says the destroyer, did I just hear you say yours says the destroying angel? How should we understand the end of verse 10?
Andy
I don’t actually even know what verse 10 is talking about. I think … Yeah, I just think, when there’s a plague, sometimes … Either way, we have a sense of an intelligent destroyer, and who would that be other than God or an angel. And so, I think, fundamentally, any story in which there are dead Jews during the Exodus, they’re dropping dead, especially after the … Well, I think exclusively after the 10 spies complained, that’s vengeance from God, so we need to take warning. This whole thing is a warning passage. Don’t be like the Jews who died in the desert, that’s what he’s saying.
Wes
What does verse 11 teach us about how we should read the Old Testament narratives about Israel’s history, especially their sins, and what does it mean that we are those on whom the end of the ages has come?
Andy
All right. First of all, these things happened to them as examples. So, God actually orchestrated these things knowing full well what they were going to do. And he wanted negative examples. We have in the Bible both negative and positive examples. Don’t be like X, do be like Y. And so we have these negative examples. And so, it was orchestrated providentially and then written down by Moses and other Bible writers so that we can have the warning we need. Now, warnings are essential to our faith, we need to believe in that. The whole epistle of Hebrews is an epistle of warnings and why? Because we need warnings to stay on the straight and narrow, we need warnings to not apostatize.
So, as I read these scary accounts, I am caused to look inward to find the exact same tendencies in my heart and cry out against myself and say, “What a wretched man I am, please protect me, God; there’s no difference between me and those unbelieving Jews. I’m every bit as whining and complaining and idolatrous and wicked.” So, you remember the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. I think hermeneutics is important coming from the bad example of the Pharisee. “I thank you, God, that I’m not like other men…. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I give” (Luke 18:11a, 12). And I thank you that I’m so great, I’m just an incredible person and I’m not like this tax collector over here, I’m nothing like that.
All right. Imagine that as a hermeneutical approach to the Old Testament or indeed to the whole Bible. I thank you, God, that I’m not like the Jews who died in the desert, it seems like we ought not to be that way. I thank you, God, that I’m not like the pagan Egyptians who died in the Red Sea, or I thank you, God, that I’m not like … Don’t. Just say I know I’m like the sinners in this story, tell me how, show me how. And it’s not always true, we don’t struggle with every sin, there’s some sins that people struggle with that I don’t. But at the same time, it’s better for me to be safe. When I’m reading through Ezekiel and I see how Jerusalem is portrayed as an unfaithful wife that’s whoring after the nations, whoring after the gods of other nations, I don’t read that like I thank you, God, that I’m not like that, I read that to say, “God, please help me not to be like that.”
So, I think the idea is we take these warnings, best if we take them seriously and take them personally and take them up to God in prayer. And like the tax collector in that parable, beat our breasts and say, “Be merciful to me, O God, the sinner” (Luke 18:13b).
Wes
What does it mean then that we are those on whom the end of the ages has come?
Andy
Well, that’s Christ and we’re in a better place now. The promises we have are better promises. The gospel that we have is clearer, it’s more accurately articulated than it ever was in the Old Testament. So, the fulfillment of all the ages is Jesus and the gospel, the New Testament. Now that we’re at this place in redemptive history, let’s learn what they learned from the past.
Wes
What key exhortation does Paul give following that in verse 12, to all Christians about sin and the proper way to receive warnings? And why is overconfidence in the matter of sin and temptation so deadly, maybe even specifically deadly in areas where we’ve fallen in the past?
Andy
Well, this is a vital verse in the Wednesday night teaching we’re doing in Romans on the issue of mortification. And one of the things I teach is that we put sin to death, we call it “death by starvation,” that’s our strategy. So, you take a sin category and the way that you weaken its hold on you and its powerful temptations toward you is by denying specific moments of temptation in that category. And the more you deny those, the more you say no to illicit websites, pornographic websites or the more you say no to materialism or the more you say no to carnal anger, let’s say, in a discussion with your spouse. Or the more you say no to laziness and the tendency to put off paying your bills and then you start getting into collection agencies because you procrastinated so long. The more you learn to say no to yourself, the weaker sin will get in that category. But one thing you cannot do is kill a category.
You can’t put a red X across a whole category saying, “I know that for the rest of my life I’ll never struggle with that particular type of pride.” You can never say that, and this verse says why. If you think you’re standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall. In the area where you think you are strongest, you’re actually weakest. Paul said, “When I’m weak, then I’m strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). The corollary is, when I’m strong, then I’m actually weak. Strong means overconfident, and pride goes before the fall. So, if you think you are standing firm, you better take heed. So, basically I would just say take heed.
Like someone once said, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom (attributed to Thomas Jefferson). You want to be free from sin, you got to be vigilant. You got to put some night watchman out on the wall and expect some temptations in certain areas and the stronger and the … It’s like someone once said, if any nation ever wants peace, they need to prepare for war (Admiral Rob Bauer). You get everything ready for war, guess what? You’re going to have peace. I guess it’s Teddy Roosevelt who said speak softly and carry a big stick. All right, when it comes to temptations and all that, I’m going to carry a big stick which is preparedness, readiness, I’m going to memorize scripture, I’m going to put myself out on the wall like a night watchman. I’m going to watch out because I just don’t want to fall.
Wes, think of it this way, suppose I said to you, “I don’t really need to worry about committing adultery, I just know I would never be unfaithful to Christi.” What would you say to me if you heard me say that and you really thought I believed it?
Wes
I’d say watch out. Be careful, that kind of attitude puts you in the very place. I think that’s what he says, right? It is take heed.
Andy
Maybe you’d slap me.
Wes
I don’t know if I’d slap you.
Andy
That’s not your nature. But I can imagine some guys, I have only one response, smack. But I think the Bible does that, it’ll smack us around. Do you think Peter was overconfident when he said even if fall away, I never will? There are clear examples of this. I think David was overconfident the night he walked out on the roof and saw Bathsheba bathing. And so, yeah, if you think you’re standing firm, you better take heed lest you fall.
Wes
How’s it helpful for us to know that the temptations we face are common to all Christians and what does it mean that God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability?
Andy
This is an incredibly important statement, very, very important. First of all, there’s a finite number of temptations Satan uses. John brings it down to three, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and boastful pride of life, there’s more than that. But it’s not an infinite array of temptations, there’s just a bunch of things that just keep working. Satan, he just keeps coming at you with those things. And so, the temptations that seize you are common to all people, and so we could start listing them. Obviously, we’ve talked a lot about sex but prideful things, materialism and greed, power, control, anger, things like that, laziness. These things are common, we all struggle with them.
And I think one of the ways that we find that this is helpful is just say, “Look, we’re in a local church together, I know what you struggle with.” “No, you don’t.” “Yes, I do, because I struggle with it too. We all struggle with the same things.” And so, Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 5:5, the temptations we deal with are common to all of our brothers, our brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings. So, that’s part A. Now, part B is really important. God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13 paraphrase). Now, this feeds right into the topic of the restraint of Satan and of demons that we discussed in the Book of Job with the hedge of protection that God had put around Job. You’ve not let me get at him, let me at him, and I’ll take care of it.
So, the fact that he has to ask permission or, “Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31), he didn’t just do it, he had to ask permission. “I can’t get at Job,” Satan’s saying, and this is the “I can’t get at any Christian” statement. God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. All right let’s go to that. The fact of the matter is there are temptations that are too strong for us to bear, and God won’t let it come our way, all right? So, a very good example of this, this is a very deep theological point. Jesus said in John 17, “I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4), and “of all that You have given me, I have not lost any of them” (John 18:9 paraphrase). I’ve not lost any of them.
But then in the next chapter, when Jesus is being arrested, he said, “Who are you looking for?” (John 18:4), and they said, “Jesus of Nazareth,” and Jesus said, “I am,” and they drew back and fell to the ground. “Again, Jesus a second time asked them, ‘Who are you looking for?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth'” (John 18:7). All right, stop right there. Why did he do that? Why did He make them state twice what their orders were written for? We’re here to arrest Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said, “Fine, if you’re looking for me, then let these men go.” Who is he talking about? His apostles. And then John gives us the reason why, “Jesus said this so that the statement He had made would be fulfilled, of all those You have given me, I have not lost one” (John18:9).
So, that’s interesting. If they had been arrested, they would’ve been lost. It’s the implication. They weren’t ready to be arrested that night. Clearly Peter wasn’t, though he thought he was. And so, Jesus orchestrated the temptation, he let them have a way of escape. They actually even acted out they have a way of escape. At that moment, his disciples all deserted him and fled. “Let them go,” they let them go. Did Jesus want them to go? He actually did because they weren’t ready to face. Now, later they would be martyrs but not that night, they weren’t ready.
And so, fundamentally, that’s a picture, an acted-out picture of this very verse. He will get out in front of us as our good shepherd, he’ll stand between us and the trial, the temptation, the danger. He said, “No, no, no, I’m not letting you pass. I’m here to protect my flock.” He’s not going to let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Isn’t that comforting?
Wes
It is. Wow.
Andy
He filters. It shows a limit of Satan, he’s on a chain. It shows that hedge of protection. It also shows, if the gate goes up and the demons flood in, God has let it happen. So, if you’re going through some things and this is where I’ve said before there are two statements we often make that are hardly ever true, if they are ever true. One is I can’t take much more of this, and the second is I did my best. We say those two things. Imagine somebody going through a trial say I can’t take any more of this. Well, you can take exactly what God brings your way because of this verse. So, what you need to do is go back to God, get strengthened, stand up under it.
And by the way, there’s a very strong image here that’s complex. He says, “God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but, with the temptation, will make a way of escape so that you can stand up under it.” So, all right, am I supposed to escape or stand up under it?
Wes
Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I have two E words in my translation. I think it’s, it’s am I to escape or endure.
Andy
Yeah.
Wes
Which is it?
Andy
Well, I think it’s both. In the verse it’s you endure by escaping. So, let’s look again at Joseph, Potiphar’s wife is tempting him. Let’s imagine that she’s a very attractive woman, that she’s not ugly, some old, ugly, repulsive person but it’s a temptation. He’s a picture of what you have to do, all right? When he went to bed that night, was his morality and his walk with God intact? Was he standing in his faith? He was. How did he do it? By running. So, the way that your faith stands firm, and your testimony stands firm is by escaping. Again, Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer, lead us not into temptation, get out of it.
By the way I was, this is related I think, I was watching a YouTube video by a Navy SEAL, a special ops expert, hand-to-hand combat expert guy. And he was fundamentally advocating escaping from every fighting situation if ever possible. And he said because here’s what’s going to happen. Let’s say it’s a bar situation, and you’re seven black belt level, you’re whatever. One of two things is going to happen. Either some guy’s going to pull a weapon on you, and you’ll be dead, or he’s got a bunch of friends and whatever and you’ll be in the hospital. Or you’ll kill the guy, in which case you’ll be in court. And you have to have witnesses, and it’s going to be a long-drawn-out affair defending your innocence. It will not be easy to prove. The best thing for you to do is run away.
So, here’s this best fighter in the world saying, don’t fight, run away. So, I guess what I’m saying is, here, the best thing we can do is not stand up strong in the moment of temptation and show how much we can handle, get out of it. Do what Joseph did, get out of the situation. Lead us not into temptation, Jesus said. Don’t be tempted. So, whatever ways you can orchestrate your life, cut off your right hand, gouge out your right eye, whatever you have to do to be pure, be pure.
“Don’t be tempted. So, whatever ways you can orchestrate your life, cut off your right hand, gouge out your right eye, whatever you have to do to be pure, be pure.”
Wes
Andy, there’s much for us to take away from this passage we’ve been looking at. What final thoughts do you have for us as we wrap up today?
Andy
This is a serious warning. And the warning is from Israel’s history that sin is prevalent, sin is dangerous. Idolatry is there, sexual immorality is there; we need to be vigilant; we need to watch. It’s not enough to begin the Christian life, it’s not enough just to go to church and start it, we need to finish. And the only way we’re going to finish is go back to the end of chapter nine and beat our bodies and make it our slave. And be self-controlled and disciplined and go into strict training. And let’s be very, very careful with ourselves so that we’re not disqualified. So, we need to take warnings, we need to take sin seriously, and we need to run this race with endurance.
Wes
Well, this has been episode 13 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 14 entitled Idolatry and Christian Freedom where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
